Massachusetts enters a beer renaissance

Massachusetts beer drinkers are among some of the most discerning and nuanced in the country, which is putting them in high demand among the nation’s brewers.

Back in April, Pottsville, Pa.-based D.G. Yuengling and Son stormed back into Massachusetts after a nearly 20-year absence. It rolled into more than 6,000 packaged goods stores, liquor stores, bars and restaurants in the state and increased the reach of a brewer that already produced 2.7 million barrels of beer in 2013.

Among U.S.-owned breweries, that’s second only to the 3.4 million barrels produced by Massachusetts’ own Boston Beer Co. and its Samuel Adams and Traveler brands.

In early July, the San Antonio-based Gambrinus Co. that owns Trumer Pils and BridgePort Brewing Co. announced that its Spoetzel Brewery would begin distributing its Shiner brand to Massachusetts.

So why are these brewers suddenly so comfortable in Massachusetts? Well, for one thing, it’s a big market with a somewhat small brewing presence. The Brewers Association counted 57 breweries in Massachusetts in 2013. That’s up from 45 in 2011, but still ranks it 16th in the nation in brewery count and 24th in breweries per capita with just 1.2 breweries per 100,000 people. The more than 329,000 barrels it produced last year rank it 12th in the nation, but the 2.1 gallons it produces per drinking age adult ranks 17th.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the 26.2 gallons of beer consumed by each drinking-age Massachusetts resident ranks just 40th in the nation. However, it gets a lot of visitors and draws a lot of beer from neighboring states.

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Massachusetts is also home to one of the largest craft beer events in the country, the American Craft Brew Festival held by BeerAdvocate and Harpoon Brewery each May. This year, the event featured 640 beers from more than 140 U.S. brewers and drew more than 15,000 guests to what has become the East Coast’s largest beer event.

Want to taste a Duck Rabbit stout from North Carolina or a Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA from San Francisco? This is usually your best opportunity to find one in New England.

Well, here or at the Craft Beer Cellar chain. Owners Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow started with one shop in Belmont in 2010 before expanding to four other Massachusetts locations – including one in Braintree – and going national with outlets in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Missouri and Florida. More locations in Connecticut, California and Mississippi are in the works.

Boston Beer Co., which celebrates its 30th year in Massachusetts this year, has used its Samuel Adams brewery in Jamaica Plain as its research and development center for the brand.

Harpoon Brewery, meanwhile, opened in 1986 and was one of the few places in Massachusetts that would fill a growler until the last half decade or so. It has not only expanded its Boston facility to include a tasting hall and events, but just announced that its employees will take the reins with help from an employee stock ownership plan similar to those used by New Belgium and Oregon’s Full Sail.

With Boston’s recently opened Trillium Brewing seeing lines around the block, Framingham-based Jack’s Abby helping lead craft beer’s lager renaissance, the Monks of Spencer Brewery making the only Trappist ale in the U.S. and both the Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project and Notch Brewing showing that great things can come from contract-brewed beer, Massachusetts has become a hub for beer drinkers in the know.

But brewers from elsewhere see that relatively small number of breweries and see a vacancy sign in a massive market.

Brewers from California (Sierra Nevada and Green Flash) and Colorado (Oskar Blues and New Belgium) have either opened or begun building breweries in Virginia and North Carolina just to expand their presence on the East Coast. All have designs on pumping more beer into the Northeast, while New Belgium (the eighth-largest brewer in the country) just wants to get its beer into the Northeast for the first time.